Second Russian Civil War

The Second Russian Civil War was a large civil war between the Russian Ultranationalist Party and the Russian Federation. The United States and the United Kingdom invaded to intervene on the side of the Russian loyalists, hoping to defeat the ultra-nationalist rebels, who were backing a US enemy in the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Background
On November 5, 1996, the British authorized their first assassination order since World War II on Imran Zakhaev, the founder and chairman of the Russian Ultranationalist Party. He was trading spent fuel rods to fellow ultra-nationalist extremists near the ghost town of Chernobyl in exchange for cash, which was seen as a recipe for destruction. The SAS used sniper rifles to silently eliminate enemies, infiltrating the city. The team hid in the top of the hotel viewing the deal area, where a convoy and a security detail of over 30 Russian troops awaited the arrival of Zakhaev and the bidders. Lieutenant John Price, the second-in-command of the expedition, shot Zakhaev's left arm off. The SAS team attracted the attention of the entire city, causing them to have a running gunfight with the Russians. The SAS troops escaped to the desolate Chernobyl amusement park, where they held onto their position with aid from SAS reinforcements landed by helicopter. The entire team and the reinforcements escaped on the CH-64 Sea Knight helicopter, and made it away.

Zakhaev survived the assassination attempt, however, and he organized the Ultranationalist Party's army. In 2001, he began a chain of terrorist attacks alongside his second-in-command Vladimir Makarov:

The Russian Ultranationalist Party was labeled a terrorist group by NATO and the United Nations (with the exception of North Korea, the People's Republic of China, and Nepal), and the Russian government tried to kill the leadership off over the years. The straw that broke the camels's back was when Zakhaev supported the violent Middle Eastern uprising of Khaled al-Asad. It overthrew the peaceful yet corrupt government of Yasir al-Fulani, causing instability in the Middle East. It began the conflict, and war began in the Middle East.
 * 2001 - To start off Makarov's reign of terror Imran Zakhaev ordered Makarov to bomb a Moscow city bus. The mission succeeded and killed 29 people and injured 19 more.
 * 2001 - Used a modified London Underground train filled with explosives to bomb Piccadilly Circus, killing 407.
 * 2001 - Massacre at GUM mall in Moscow, 87 dead.
 * 2002 - Hijack of Greek oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea. Greek Navy boarding party along with two crew members killed before $3 million ransom is paid.
 * 2002 - Murder of three Russian infantry soldiers.
 * 2002 - $1.5 million stolen from a ZBV bank.
 * 2003 - Repression of North Caucasus-based, pro-Western nationalist groups. Assassinations of political leaders, arson and bombing of opposition parties. Murder of Moscow-based journalist Ilya Lovitch, who was investigating political crimes in the region.
 * 2003 - Bombing of several high Government buildings in Kazakhstan, 245 dead.
 * 2003 - Commander of two Kreigler Airliner hijackings, 378 dead, including eight of his own men.
 * 2004 - Robbed an HBS bank in Istanbul.
 * 2004 - Kidnapping of 15 college students from Russia, five dead.
 * 2004 - Bombing of two embassies in Africa, 28 dead 48 injured.
 * 2005 - Hold-up of billion trucks in Moscow, stole three million rubles. Three security guards dead.
 * 2005 - Hijacking of cruise ship in the Baltic Sea, tortured US passengers until $5 million ransom is paid.
 * 2006 - Robbed the Russian State Postal and Banking Service Depot of 32 million rubles.
 * 2006 - Murder of famous British designer Rob Millington.
 * 2006 - Murder of three US airmen based in Turkmenistan.
 * 2006 - Helped coordinate attacks by Janjaweed militias and Sudanese military against rebels. Implicated in human rights abuse.
 * 2007 - Capture and beheading of Mossad attache to Ukraine who was investigating Makarov's links to Islamic extremists.
 * 2007 - Assassination of Pakistani politician Hasni al Bura.
 * 2007 - Blowing up of Russia-Germany gas pipeline in Belarus because of Gasneft refusing to pay a fee to prevent “disruption to service”.
 * 2007 - Robbing of $15 millions worth of diamonds, gems and stones from a Siberian mining company.
 * 2008 - A Swedish furniture store in a shopping mall located in St. Petersburg is bombed, 100 killed or wounded.
 * 2008 - FSB vehicle ambushed, five agents dead.
 * 2008 - Abduction and murder of SibGaz owner's wife and daughter.
 * 2009 - The offices of a U.S. oil company in Baku were bombed, three people dead.
 * 2009 - Bomb plot against English-speaking school in Moscow foiled.
 * 2009 - Soccer stadium in Moscow is rigged with explosives. Authorities burst a pipe to halt the match, denying publicity to Makarov.
 * 2009 - Trafficking of over $2,100,000 worth of weapons, drugs, and people.

SAS Invasion
While the war raged on in the Middle East, the Russian government loyalists of Sergeant Josef Kamarov fought the Russian Ultranationalists in the Caucasus Mountains. They were aided by the 22nd SAS Regiment, who wanted to repay a Russian informant for intelligence on the EML Reisija by rescuing him from execution. They silently moved their way to the Loyalists' positions and grouped together to stop the rocket attacks on the Caucasian villages by Russians in a certain artillery emplacement in the center of Budyonnovsk. The SAS provided sniper support while the loyalists assaulted the village, but later had to move in to repel incoming and unexpected helicopter troops. They succeeded, but forced Kamarov to tell them where the informant was, as he kept on dragging them away from their objective by telling them to cover their attack on the village. The SAS and Loyalists located the compound, shutting down the power before breaching. They used night vision goggles to eliminate the Russian troops and take the informant to a helicopter for extraction along with the SAS team. They headed to a safehouse in Hamburg, but were shot down in the Komi Republic (at Sosnogorsk) of Russia.

hey lost the pilots and one of the SAS soldiers, but were able to move on. Altogether, they made a squad of 5 SAS and Loyalist troops. They snuck their way through the villages, using the dark night as cover. They avoided helicopters' spotlights to advance, and took out Russian infantrymen whenever possible. They even saved a hapless farmer from execution by Russian troops, but at the cost of exposure. They alerted the entire Russian search party, fighting them as they headed to the end of the villages. They fought in the farm gardens, inside houses, and on the roads. They were aided by an AC-130 helicopter gunship, which took out most of the Russian troops as they headed to two Black Hawk helicopters in a car park. They made it to the extraction after having killed over 250 Russian Ultranationalist soldiers.

Northern Azerbaijan
The SAS were dispatched to a safehouse in Lejet, rumored to harbor the terrorist leader Khaled al-Asad, following his detonation of a nuclear warhead in North Riyadh, killing 30,000 American soldiers in the blink of an eye. The SAS 22nd Regiment under Captain John Price and Captain John MacTavish moved into the town to take him down, hoping to find out who he was being supplied by and who was aiding him. They fought their way through four safehouses in the town, killing all the occupants, but did not find Al-Asad there. But the in the fifth, they found Al-Asad and shot him after finding his cell phone ringing, called by Zakhaev.

The next morning, the SAS were encircled by a force of Ultranationalists under the command of Vasili Andropov, who ordered them to surrender. Either way, the Russian troops were slowly heading up the hills that led to the safehouse. The SAS troops set up LMG positions, mines, and rocket launchers, giving the Russians the impression that they had more men than they really did. They began to fire at the Russians advancing up the slopes, inflicting heavy casualties. Then, they used the minigun of a crashed helicopter to mow down the Russians who had already breached the first line of defense. They retreated to the tavern, where MacTavish used C4 detonators to blow up mines scattered around the Russian positions, again dealing tons of damage. The Russian Ultranationalists kept on pushing, lost 4 T-72 tanks and one helicopter to the SAS troops when they got their hands on Javelin missile launchers. The USAF provided close air support, bombing the Russians as the SAS made it to a H-47 Chinook chopper filled with US marines. The marines laid down covering fire until the SAS made it to the chopper, and only then, they got back in. The chopper flew off, leaving the warzone.

Hunt for Viktor Zakhaev
After the death of Khaled al-Asad, the SAS were dispatched to defeat Zakhaev, whose son Viktor was always at his side. They wanted to capture Viktor Zakhaev in order to find out the father's location in order to assassinate him. The Russian loyalists under Sergeant Kamarov found out that Zakhaev's son was in Volgograd, so they decided to launch a joint operation between the SAS, USMC, and the Russian Loyalists. They silently eliminated the guards of a watchtower guarding the main road, and the guards inside a cafe. The team of SAS, USMC, and Loyalists used their uniforms as disguises, firing on Zakhaev's convoy and taking out the escorts. But they needed Zakhaev alive, so they were not allowed to shoot him, even in the leg; it was too much of a chance that it would kill him. The Allied Forces chased him through the city while a huge battle raged, and they eventually cornered him on the roof of a hotel. Before they could capture him, he capped himself in the head. The Allied troops left the city, their mission failed.

Nuclear Threat
Imran Zakhaev, deeply affected by the death of his son, demanded that all American and British soldiers withdraw from Russia, or else he would launch a nuclear attack on the United States' eastern seabord. The Russians had a military installation in the Altai Mountains, where the ICBMs were going to launch from. The plan went awry when Staff Sergeant Jimmy Griggs activated his emergency transponder when he landed by parachute, so the SAS troops had to quit their silence and fight their way to him. They took out an enemy convoy and pushed through several Russian troops to get to the marine SSgt. They were able to rescue him, and they continued the attack. They destroyed the Russian power station to disable the electricity of the base, and the Allied troops proceeded to launch an attack on the base. They fought a gunfight with the Russian troops in the center, and later rapelled into the silos in order to stop the launch using abort codes obtained through the Russian government. They fought their way to the war room, and deactivated the missiles, blowing up over the Atlantic Ocean and wounding only a few Virginians. With the ICBM threat averted, the Allied troops fought their way out of the facility, when they found out that Imran Zakhaev was just leaving the facility.

Death of Imran Zakhaev
The SAS and SSgt. Jimmy Griggs pursued Imran Zakhaev on a jeep, but were pursued by personnel from the launch facility on troop transports. Fortunately, the SAS were equipped with an RPG-7 and blew up the enemy vehicles. But as they drove over the highway bridge, a Russian helicopter destroyed it. The men in the jeep fortunately lived, and they got out to engage the incoming vehicles. The Russians sent in jeeps filled with troops and troop transports to deploy troops to kill or capture the SAS and USMC troops. They held the enemy off until the helicopter made another pass, in which all of the SAS were killed or incapacitated. MacTavish took Captain Price's pistol and shot both Zakhaev and his two bodyguards, and Russian Loyalist troops entered the area to stabilize the region. The loyalists provided medical support for Price, MacTavish, and the other survivors, helping them up and extracting them by a helicopter. Zakhaev died, and the second stage began.

Ultranationalists versus Loyalists
Fighting continued throughout the 2010s, as the Russian Loyalists and the United States fought against the Russian Ultranationalists, who gradually took over the country. In August 2015, the Russian Ultranationalist militias ousted President Vladimir Putin from power and Boris Vorshevsky took power, with Vladimir Makarov swearing revenge.

Aftermath
The Second Russian Civil War was widely seen as the beginning of World War III, as it ended when the war began. However, the claim is respectable, as loyalists continued fighting against the Russian Ultranationalist government until the end of the great war in 2016. The war was also connected to the Opposition Forces Insurgency, when many historians label either one a theater of the other and vice versa. For example, Al-Asad was killed in Russia during the civil war, but the war began with Al-Asad's revolution in the Middle East.

Zakhaev was honored as a national hero and martyr by the Russian Ultranationalists, but also by many ordinary Russians. The Russians forged a statue of Imran Zakhaev riding on a horse in 2016, commemorating their founding father's sacrifice. He was often compared to Vladimir Lenin, waging a communist war out of vengeance for the loss of a family member to the government, and both fought a conflict with thousands of deaths. He ranked among the top communist heroes, like Lenin, Josef Stalin, Che Guevara, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Ho Chi Minh, and Kim Ill-Sung. He was revered by many Russians, who continued to be honored to have lived in the same country as Zakhaev. Ironically, Ultranationalists massacred a horde of civilians at the Zakhaev International Airport, named after the late Ultranationalist founder.